In the planning of industrial processes, computer simulation techniques are used, where a physical scene of a physical environment is modeled by a virtual scene of a virtual simulation environment. The physical or real scene may, for example, be a facility, a manufacturing plant, an industrial scene, or any other physical scene that may benefit from being modeled in a virtual environment for industrial simulation purposes.
The real scene may include a variety of real objects that are related to a facility. Examples of real objects include, but are not limited to, equipment pieces, tools, containers, material pieces, finished or semi-finished products, and other objects present in the real scene. Real objects are represented in the virtual simulation environment by virtual objects. Virtual objects are typically defined through three-dimensional (3D) virtual models, examples of which include, but are not limited to, CAD models, CAD-like models, point cloud models, and other types of 3D computer models.
In the real scene, the real objects have a position and an orientation, which can change/move as the real object is moved or re-positioned within the real scene. When modeling industrial facilities in the virtual simulation environment, it is often a common requirement that the position and the orientation of the virtual objects in the virtual scene accurately reflect the position and the orientation of the real objects in the real scene.
It is assumed that light weight robots, which are designed to work around humans with no safety guards, are at a certain risk of hitting humans, such that safety mechanisms are provided to reduce any possible damage.